Changing Seasons

Last night I was walking around the gardens and noticing how tired they looked. I knew it was time to begin cutting everything back for the fall and winter. Some of the plants I am OK about cutting back, others I am quite sad about. That would be true of my favorite plant this year, the Giant Elephant Ears from Thailand. What a showstopper this plant is! Eli can be wrapped up in one of the leaves and be completely covered. I have enjoyed watching it grow and I can’t wait to see it next year.

Cutting down the garden at this time of year is necessary, but it is not joyful. I will miss the blooms and the smells. Even now, I look forward to the butterflies coming back next year.

As hard as this is to end the season, God is so good at making me aware that He has not stopped showing off His beautiful creation. Some people think this is the time of the year when our Loving Creator is at His best. He could have been economical and simply dried up the leaves at the end of the year. That would be too easy. Instead, He creates a scientific process through which leaves change in such a way that boasts of God’s beauty.

God is so good to show off His glory in the variety of colors in the summer and the fall. He also reveals His holiness with the snow covering the ground in the winter. And He shows it again when the crocuses come up in the spring. Our Creator is so amazing, isn’t He?

God is with us in every season of the year and Solomon teaches us that He is with us in every season of life (Ecclesiastes 3). God is there in the seasons of weeping and laughing. He is there when the child is born and when the person dies. Each season is different, but God is always there.

Knowing this allows me to go and cut back those elephant ears. I know God will continue to show off His greatness. It might not be like these elephant ears, it might even be better. I do bet, though, that God will allow some maple leaves to fall down right before my face.